Our Father in heaven, the Maker of the heaven and the earth, the Author of life, our Sufficiency, our All-in-all, our Yesterday, our Today and our Tomorrow, we lift You high oh Lord, we lift You high above our challenges and our problems, we lift You high oh Lord above principalities and powers.
Father we thank You; we thank You Lord for the gift of life, we thank You Lord for the salvation of our souls, we thank You oh Lord for the privilege to gather before You this morning, we thank You much more Lord for Your presence in our midst this morning, glory be to Your name forevermore.
My God and my Father we thank You because it pleases You that here in this assembly You’ll move us forward; Father Lord God of heaven, everything and anything that You would do to move us forward, Lord please release upon us today in the name of Jesus.
You’ll move us forward in our bodies, You’ll move us forward in our souls, You’ll move us forward in our spirits in the mighty name of Jesus. Father You will move our home forward, You will move our nation forward, You will move this world forward in the name of Jesus.
My God and my Father, we ask that You speak expressly unto us in the mighty name of Jesus. Let each and every one of us hear You the way You want us to understand it in the name of Jesus. Thank You blessed Redeemer, in Jesus mighty and wonderful name we have prayed. Praise the Lord! Praise the living Jesus!
Good morning brethren, daddies and mummies, God bless you in the name of Jesus. I want to acknowledge our father in the Lord, the Pastor in charge of Province for the privilege that I have to stand before you this morning, I pray that the mighty hands of God will continually be upon him in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
I would also like to invite all of us to the prayer chain for tomorrow; the theme is taken from Psalm 147: 4 – 7, ‘The Inexhaustible God’, come and take of Him and you can never finish what He has to offer. Please invite as many people as you can in the name of Jesus.
Please turn with me to the Book of Exodus 14: 13 – 28, it’s a fairly long passage but I’ll stop when I need to stop, “13 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.
14 The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. 15 And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: 16 But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. 17 And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.
18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten me honour upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. 19 And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: 20 And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night. 21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided”. Praise the Lord!
The topic for our exhortation this morning is in line with our theme for the month, “Moving Forward”, my prayer this morning is that you will move forward; in your bodies, you will move forward; in your soul, you will move forward; in the spirit, you will move forward; in everything that pertains to life, you will move forward in the mighty name of Jesus.
When we talk about moving forward, I think it doesn’t really need definitions because it’s apparent to everybody what moving forward is, but let me just try to describe it and also maybe showcase one or two things about moving forward. So ‘moving forward’, I would say it means going in the direction that one is facing or traveling towards the front. The more you edge towards the front, the more you edge towards the ladder in the organization or becoming what you are planned to do for the year or for your life, you’ll say you are moving forward. Or it can be said to be an onward progress, praise the living Jesus! But I would like to say moving forward means different things to different people.
You can see that the first was based on where they were, that’s their circumstance in life and what they are doing at that particular time and what is most paramount or most important to them, praise the living Jesus.
So when we talk about moving forward, for somebody who is sick, moving forward means receiving healing, praise the Lord! There is a woman in Mark 5: 25 – 34, the Bible says to us that she had an issue of blood for 12 years and had looked all around for help through doctors and had spent all her money, she remained on the same spot because the issue of blood was there as long as it was.
Then one day, she had an encounter with Jesus Christ and the Bible says the issue of blood ceased, the flow ceased that day and from that day I believe the woman began to move forward. There is somebody here this morning, there is sickness, disease, whatsoever in your body that has kept you on one spot, in the mighty name of Jesus from this morning you will move forward.
So somebody who is stagnant in life – no promotion, no failure, no pass, taking primary six for 4 years, doing ICAN for 10 years, repeating JAMB three times, stagnation, moving forward means eventually celebrating success.
In John 5, there was a man (the Bible tells us) had been on one spot for 38 years, every time he smelt help, he saw people leaving but it never happened to him, but one day God put an end to stagnation in his life, and the Bible tells us that on his own, he got up, carried his bed and began to go home.
Have you been stagnant for years in your business, in career, in family; have you been married for years and there’s no child to show for it? In the name that is above every other name, from today, the Lord will put an end to stagnation in your life; you will move forward in the mighty name of Jesus.
To somebody who has lost hope of any good thing happening, moving forward means restoration of hope, praise the living Jesus!
We know the story in Luke 7: 11 – 15, the widow of Nain; because she was called a widow means once upon a time she was married and had lost her husband, and then she had only one son and the Bible says the only son also died, what do you think the woman would say? She will say it’s finished, what is she living this life for? What else is she looking at? What else is she aspiring? Total loss of hope, but the same day that they were going to bury the child, as they were going, they encountered Jesus and there was a restoration of hope.
Is there somebody here who has lost hope about life and you are contemplating suicide for example? Is there somebody here who has given up and has said nothing can happen, I’ve tried my best, let me just leave it, let anything that will happen, happen to me. I pray for you today that the Lord Almighty will visit you; He will restore your hope in the mighty name of Jesus.
To the ‘supposed’ barren, moving forward means carrying your own baby, celebrating your own joy. In 1st Samuel 1: 10, the Bible tells us that Hannah went and prayed bitterly, and in the process of praying the prophet saw her and said drunk woman like every other person, and she poured out her heart and said no, I wasn’t drunk, I was only pouring out my heart to God, and the prophet prayed with her and shortly after, God heard her prayer and baby Samuel came.
And in chapter 2, the Bible tells us that not only did she have Samuel , she had five other children. The one who had been called barren became the mother of many children. Is there somebody here who is supposedly barren – barrenness of fruitfulness, fruitfulness in business, fruitfulness of idea, barrenness in any way and the world is already tagging you already as barren, in the name that’s above every other name, today you will move forward; there will be an end to barrenness, there will be an end to fruitlessness in the mighty name of Jesus.
To the one who is working hard and there is nothing to show for it, moving forward means one day you will eventually say this is the product of my labor.
In Genesis 26, the Bible tells us that Isaac looked at everything and said nothing can happen in this city, I’m going to Egypt and then God said to him, stay here, and the Bible says in that same year he had a hundredfold return when others (like him before) had nothing to show for their labor.
I pray for someone here today, you are in this economy, you are in this Nigeria, you are in this world and it appears as if you are not working; the harder you work, the less you have to show; the more you labor, some even took two jobs three jobs and yet it appears as if they never worked, the Lord Almighty will move you forward from this morning; there will be good reward for your labor in the name of Jesus; you will move forward; you will prosper in the mighty name of Jesus. The world will celebrate you in the mighty name of Jesus.
Now having illustrated what moving forward is, (that’s all still background to the message), let’s go back to our passage – life is a journey, I wrote this on Tuesday, and by Friday night when I wanted to review it and yesterday, this first part I said why did I write this, I didn’t know but maybe when I say it now; life is a journey onto a certain destination, that destination, as far as we can see it ends up in death.
Our lives – you and I, this journey will end up in death, but you see, there is also a destination after the initial one here, if God will open our eyes and we see beyond the horizon of this earth, then you will see that this destination actually ends up in eternity – eternity either in celebration or in damnation. Brethren I pray for you and I that this journey of life will end up in eternity with God in the mighty name of Jesus.
Then why did I bring it out? In the life of journey, sometimes you get to a point where you don’t know what next to do, so you’ll stand somewhere and you are wondering what to do next, it is called a decision point; should I turn to the left, should I go back, should I run forward? But there’s somebody who knows what to do.
So this passage we read today is the story of the children of Israel, they just left Egypt and then they got to a point, they didn’t know what to do because there was an obstacle before them and they did the right thing; their leader, Moses, looked up to God, what should I do? (Exodus 14: 14 & 15) and God said why are you crying, you know what to do, you have rod in your hand, please stretch the rod forward and I will make way for you, tell My children to go forward.
Brethren I believe that by the inspiration of God, our father in the Lord has declared that this month is our month of moving forward, and God is saying to you, move forward; it does not matter what the obstacle is, it does not matter what is keeping you, you will move forward in the mighty name of Jesus.
The Bible tells us that the Bible is written for us as end samples, people have lived the life we are living before under the guidance of God, and it is documented in the scripture how God led them, our job here on earth is simple, just to try and fit into their shoes, follow the same precedence of God and we’ll get to our destination, so let’s try and copy what they’ve done this morning.
We’ll take a few lessons in your journey to move forward:
The first thing that I see in this passage is that if you truly want to move forward and make progress in life, you must allow God to lead you. Psalm 75: 6 & 7, the Bible tells us that for anyone to move forward, it is not from any other thing that we do here but it’s only from God above.
So it became clear in that journey, when the children of Israel were coming from Egypt, I’m sure they were all dancing and singing and saying Moses, Moses, Moses, then when they got to the Red Sea they started abusing him, they started blaming him, ‘you don’t even know anything and you call yourself a leader, leader my foot, oya what next to do now’, even Moses himself was confused.
But the Bible tells us, if you accept the one that comes in my name, you accept Me; that they did that to Moses means that they did not accept Moses as their leader at that time, and that they did not accept Moses means also that they did not accept God that sent Moses, so they would not ordinarily allow God to lead them. If you look at Luke 10: 16, the Bible says whoever listens to you listens to Me, (He’s talking to His disciples that He sent out) and whoever rejects you rejects Me and whoever rejects Me rejects the One that sent Me.
It’s not every time that God will say ‘oh Tunde my son’, He will send a Moses, He will send a Joseph, but if you receive the one God has sent in His name, then you have received God; if you reject the person, you have rejected God, because some of us will say oh, where is the Moses? God will send somebody. This message this morning (for example) is a message; if you receive this message, then you receive God, praise the living Jesus!
So the Israelites rejected Moses and by implication they rejected God; brethren, we must let God always lead us. Why should we let God lead us? Because the Bible calls Him the Ancient of days; Psalm 90: 1 & 2 tells us that before the mountains were, He has been God, and then the Bible tells us that He’s the Alpha and the Omega, the journey that we are on today, He’s already at the end even though He’s still here with us, praise the Lord!
So He knows the way and let Him lead us. If one would not allow God to lead him/her, then it will be difficult to move forward as the Lord as prescribed for us, and anyone who is not ready for that guidance is unlikely to fulfill his purpose in life.
I would like (as time will permit me) an experience that I had, talking about allowing God to lead us; sometimes back, I think it was 2008/9, I had a certain challenge and a problem to solve and I’ve been looking all around to see how (using human heads) seeking advice of people, then one day I came for a service in this church, I was coming out of this door, as I stepped out I heard in my spirit, ‘the way to go forward is to step back’.
I heard it clearly and I knew who was speaking but I said get ye behind me, Satan, forward ever backward never; I tried to work out the solution, brethren, for seven years I was at it until I now said okay, I’m ready to step back, and then when I stepped back, within three weeks, what I had waited on for seven years was resolved, in fact the resolution was such that the help that He sent, the people we were waiting for said we will not go until you come. Hallelujah!
Brethren, sometimes when God is leading us, moving forward doesn’t necessarily mean you are running in front, sometimes He will tell you to step aside, sometimes He will tell you to go backward, sometimes He will tell you to do things that in your head you think that God has lost His mind but God does not lose His mind; let us follow Him, He knows the way, He knows the end from the beginning, and surely, if you follow Him you will reach your destination in the mighty name of Jesus.
The next point that we’ll take; when you allow God to lead the way, then He will begin to do for you things that no man can do for you. I shared with you shortly what took me seven years was solved in three weeks, the way it happened, time will not allow us to take it; when you allow God to lead you, He will begin to do what no man can do for you.
Let us look at the story of the Israelites, what they did, and from our hymn today, it says ‘God moves in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform; He plants His steps on the sea’, and another one says that we should not look at God with that our human eyes and say God doesn’t know what He’s doing; behind that His frowning providence, there is a smiling face. Behind that thing that looks like a difficult solution, God is making a way for you.
So in our passage today, He did a lot of mysterious things; first, He opened the Red Sea, even the Egyptians who ordinarily if they ask anybody to lay claim to ownership of the Red Sea, Egyptians will say it belongs to us, they had never ever thought in their lives that the Red Sea could open, but that day, because God needed to do something for His people and the Egyptians were coming from behind, God said I will use one stone to kill two birds, I will move my people forward and I’ll kill their enemies. So He opened the Red Sea.
Brethren, I do not know what is the reason why you have not been able to move forward, but the Lord Almighty will open that Red Sea for you in the mighty name of Jesus. But then I also want us to go a bit deeper looking at how did He open the Red Sea? Because we are in a season where the wind is blowing, the Bible tells us in Exodus 14:15 & 16, he asked Moses, lift up your rod, stretch out your hand, divide it and then Israelites will go forward.
Then in verses 21 it tells us something else that wasn’t there, it says the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind; so as soon as Moses stretched forth his hand, the wind came and parted the Red Sea. Hallelujah!
This season we are talking about the wind is blowing, brethren don’t take it for granted, as the wind is blowing, it will blow away all your obstacles; it will blow away all your enemies; it will make way for you where there was no way; I the mighty name of Jesus, it will create jobs that never existed.
There are a few things about the wind when the wind is blowing, I said earlier in our first point that we must follow the Lord’s leading, it was obvious that some of the Israelites did not follow the Lord’s leading because they rejected Moses, but you know sometimes when the wind is blowing, it carries everybody along, so this was what happened in the case of the Israelites, there were genuine people who deserved God’s guidance to move, but the Egyptians will say oh, God cannot take care of all His people, so He left some behind, God carried everybody along.
What am I saying brethren? As this wind is blowing and is blowing to you, every member of your home, every member of your family, every member of your household, the wind will move them forward in the mighty name of Jesus. But I would like to add, if you know any of these people who are also coasting and enjoying the wind and they do not know Jesus Christ, it is time for them to get saved because you see what happened to those Israelites before, who didn’t know the Lord, they enjoyed the wind but in the wilderness they didn’t go far. Praise the living Jesus!
The second thing about the wind is that the same wind that made way for you, that wind will close the way for your enemies. How did it happen? After the children had crossed the Red Sea, the Bible then says that God told Moses, (verse 25 – 28), turn back, stretch forth your hand and the sea would come back; but again, how did that sea come back? The wind brought it back again; the wind that aided the Israelites was the wind that drowned the Egyptians.
I pray for you this morning, as the wind of God is blowing you higher and higher, that same wind will go and be an obstacle to your enemies in the mighty name of Jesus; it will be an obstacle to your mountains, it will move mountains away for you in the name of Jesus. Anyone that is seeking after your life, the wind or God will take them out for your sake in the name of Jesus.
What else did the Lord do? He used the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire to serve as protection for the children of God. The Egyptians were on chariots, they had instruments of war and the other ones were walking, yet they never caught up with them, do you know why? Because God created something in between called the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire; in the day, it will be the pillar of cloud, they will just realize that they can’t get close; at night, it’s the pillar of fire, again, nobody will run into fire.
What is the impact of this? Because the pillar of cloud and fire was behind them, the Lord will cover your back in the mighty name of Jesus. Everyone that is running to do evil to you will never catch up with you; in the mighty name of Jesus, everyone that is planning your downfall will never succeed, because the Lord will put a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire between you and those forces in the mighty name of Jesus.
The Bible tells us in Psalm 125: 2 & 3 that as the mountain surround Jerusalem, so is the Lord all around His people, that will be your testimony from today in the mighty name of Jesus. Hallelujah!
I want to assure you, God has your back; the Bible says God has not asked us the house of Jacob to serve Him in vain, He has your back, He got it covered. Despite this brethren, the children of Israel also had their role to play, so we’ll go through that quickly; what did the children of Israel have to do? As simple as it is, obedience to divine instruction.
Brethren we have a role to play; the wind is blowing, God has spoken, the world will move forward, but you must obey His instructions. Let us look at it, the sea was there, children of Israel and the Egyptians, and then he cried, Lord please help me, and God said what do you have in your hand? He said rod; He didn’t say put it in the sea, He said stretch it over. He said God, I said we need help desperately, God, do something. If Moses had not stretched the rod, you know what would have happened? The wind would not have blown; if the wind had not blown, the Red Sea would not have parted; if the Red Sea had not parted, there would have been no dry ground; if there had been no dry ground, they would not have been able to move forward; and if they had not moved forward, the Egyptians will come, catch them up, either kill them or recapture them as slaves.
And that is where many of us have problems, God says do this, and we find it difficult to do what God has asked us to do. Jesus Christ in John 2, His first miracle, the mother of Jesus called the disciples and said I’ve seen this my son, I know He is an unusual person, whatever He asks you to do, do it.
For those of you who followed our digging deep throughout last month, and if you didn’t, you can still go on the website and get the details; it was about divine guidance and there was a reason why we used that to start the year, this year, you are not going to work in vain, you must follow divine instructions, obey to the letter.
I gave you my on example, I did not obey and it cost me seven years; I don’t think we have such time to waste anymore, praise the living Jesus!
Number two, what did the children of Israel do? In Exodus 15, as soon as they crossed the Red Sea, they began to sing songs; I was wondering where did these songs come from, it was just that they were not able to pen it down, they had been singing while they were in the sea, they were worshipping God.
Brethren, in the face of your difficulties, in the face of your challenges, in the face of the problems, worship God; worship God like never before. What worship does, the Bible tells us in Psalm 22: 3 that God inhabits the praises of His people; when you worship God intensely, He comes into that situation and I’ve not seen whatever situation it is that God steps into and that thing remains, let us worship God, the children of God worshipped God, worship, worship, worship.
The Bible tells us our life is all about worship, Revelation 4: 11, it says we were created for God’s pleasure, and what is that pleasure? Worship, because earlier in that passage you’ll see what the angels were doing, worship God, hallelujah!
We must worship God for everything; we must worship Him for who He is; we must worship Him every day; we must worship Him all the time; worship is an acceptable way of showing gratitude to God. David was a worshipper, little does one wonder that Saul, a king, with all the ammunitions and armory in the care of the king, he was unable to catch a little boy, David; he tried 14 times and failed 14 times. David was a worshipper, praise the living Jesus!
We are moving forward brethren, by the grace of God this year in the mighty name of Jesus.
Now as I try to conclude and round up, to move forward you must defer to God, you must follow His leading, praise the living Jesus! When you allow God to lead you, He will do mysterious things in your life that the world will not recognize you again for good.
God is constant, He does not change, His formula remains the same, the only change has been us, so it’s time to get back into business with God. To move things, we must obey His instructions, we must worship Him like never before, never cease to worship Him, praise the living Jesus!
Do you want to move forward this year? Is there anybody who wants to move forward this year? You want to move forward this year, you need to obey Him; obedience is a word but it’s difficult for those who don’t have the spirit, if you don’t have the spirit of God in you, it’s difficult to obey the things of God; but once you have the spirit of God in you, you will easily obey the things of God.
Disobedience can either be a refusal to do what you know to do, or it is that you do not even know, you don’t even hear that instruction because you are not in tune with Him. Romans 10: 14 – 17 says thus, how would they believe in whom they have not heard? How would they hear of Him when nobody will say it to them, faith comes by hearing and hearing of the word of God.
People who don’t hear cannot even understand it; brethren, you are here this morning, you’ve heard this word but you need the spirit of God to be able to obey Him and do His bidding, I pray this morning that you will not miss your opportunity in the mighty name of Jesus.
Whether you are here in person or you joined us online or some people that will listen to this over time, the way to move forward starts with obedience to God’s instruction; and to obey God, you must be in a position to hear Him; you want to hear God, you must be one of His own.
So we would like to give opportunities to people here this morning so that we can pray quickly.
[Altar call]
Let’s just give thanks to God; Father we thank You, we thank You for Your faithfulness, we thank You for Your mercy, we thank You for Your grace upon our lives, thank You Lord Jesus. Glory be Your name forever more, in Jesus mighty name we have given thanks.
We are going to pray and say Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, where there was no way, please make way for me; in the mighty name of Jesus, Father make way for me where there was no way. Thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
There are things in life called mountains, they limit progress, but this morning, the wind of God will blow away your mountains in the mighty name of Jesus.
So you are going to pray and say Father, send Your wind oh Lord, blow away every mountain that is limiting my progress in life, Father please blow them away; Your wind oh Lord, blow away every mountain in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
In the course of the ministration I said that God will do unusual things and I also said that God does not change, God will be God, He’s ever been God, the difference or what has shifted is us; so the way to move forward is to obey divine instructions, we need the grace for obedience.
So we are going to cry to the Lord this morning and say Father, release upon me the grace to obey You, to hear You, understand You and obey Your instructions, release it upon me oh Lord, in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
Finally, there are many of us, when challenges are there we are looking for solutions everywhere, we are even questioning God, are you still there? Then when solution comes, we start singing; and then because we have seen it, but the admonition this morning is that even before we see it, let us worship God.
So we are going to ask the Lord Almighty, Father please, I want to worship You like never before; in thick and in thorn, Father, I want to worship You, just help me Lord.
